A lot of this is incorrect, with the exception of the actual dollar amount of us debt. The us definitely has the largest debt, but not compared to it's population(its actually number 15 when you compare debt $/population). Per capita, uk, france, germany, luxumberg, the netherlands, etc all have higher debt. There are actually a ton of places that the debt, when compared to the population, is a much larger rate than the us. Dollar amounts of debt are only part of the equation. And your gold comment seems to be referring to bartering, which would be the same effect with rocks as gold. Whatever the item used to barter becomes the actual value of the item that is being traded for it.